


Flotsam

by iiii



Series: Incidents in Transit [1]
Category: Firefly, Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 09:39:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/784600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/iiii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malcolm Reynolds takes a job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flotsam

Serenity was halfway to nowhere when a wave came in from Monty: a set of coordinates and a price for fetching what was there to Persephone. Commission from Badger, Monty said, but he had a better score elsewhere, and Badger had set a deadline, so if Serenity was in the right neighborhood for the timetable...? Mal sent Monty a confirmation. Jamie changed course.

The coordinates turned out to be an asteroid not much larger than Serenity. What was there turned out to be a half-buried metal cube, scratched and beat-looking, three meters on a side and heavy.

They hadn't gotten it through the lock before River was babbling about sleeping warriors who rode a black deer along the open road into battle over the hills and far away long ago and far away out rode the sons of Terra in shiny metal boxes from the cool green hills of earth to that glorious land above the sky they really ought to know there is a happy land far far away...

She didn't hinder getting the box shipped, though, so the crew wrote it off as one of her bad days and let her natter flow unremarked.

While they were getting the cube tied down, Mal ran a hand over its surface, looking for anything that might come loose in transit. He found only decorative patterns and the traditional symbols indicating "this end up."

Once they were under way and the others were off doing chores or taking siesta, Jayne did a pass with a pry bar and a neat little scanning device, in search of loose bits that no one would miss. Nothing presented itself.

That night, with the rest asleep, River tip-tapped careful sequences along those decorative patterns, muttering under her breath in a language neither English nor Chinese. There was no immediate answer.


End file.
